New innovations in the beauty industry are challenging the status quo of plastic packaging with ocean-bound plastic—and LATHER is leading the charge.
Flashback to 1999, when Emilie Hoyt founded LATHER, her reasoning was pretty personal. Hoyt, a lifelong migraine sufferer, simply could not deal with beauty products that had any sort of fragrance. “I knew that synthetic perfumes and artificial ingredients in skin and hair care products were partially to blame for my headaches,” Hoyt shares over a recent dinner. “This transformed my interest in ingredients and aromatherapy into a deeply personal journey, as well as a commitment to create the best natural skin-care products—period.”
Fast-forward 25 years later. Hoyt still owns—and is very involved with—the LATHER brand, an eight-figure business that, aside from its original brick-and-mortar Pasadena, CA location, now has several retail stores nationwide and is available in airports, spas, boutiques, hotels and resorts around the planet. Today, the full portfolio includes skin care, body care, hair care, soap, gift sets and more.
The Plastic Pollution Problem
Considering herself a “care-taker” and “problem-solver,” Hoyt remains steadfast in her dedication to delivering products that focus on natural ingredients, but now she has a serious bone to pick with plastic. As she shares, we can all recognize that, as consumers, we have a plastic problem—it’s just not straightforward.
“It can be overwhelming and confusing to understand the best way to make a difference [when it comes to plastic],” Hoyt says. “For example, recycling can seem like an easy solution, but what many customers don’t understand is that so much of what we recycle isn’t being recycled and is ending up in the landfill. Another example is that some products use more eco-friendly packaging, but many consumers don’t realize that the product itself—the ‘what’s inside the bottle’- isn’t eco-friendly. Many of these products have toxic ingredients such as synthetic fragrances that contain PFAS—forever chemicals—that end up in our water, soil and air.”
And the stats are pretty stark: According to LATHER, every year, more than 1 million metric tons of plastic flood our oceans, with the beauty industry alone contributing a staggering 7.9 billion units of plastic packaging. (In fact, scientists believe that more than 56 percent of all marine life has ingested plastic.) Even scarier: If we continue at the current rate of pollution, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.
“The good news is that there is great awareness of the plastic problem,” Hoyt says. “I am hopeful that there are innovations that will be developed soon that will offer solutions.”
A New Kind of Plastic
To that solution-oriented end, LATHER, led by Hoyt, just introduced its Landscapes Collection ($119), a gorgeous range of skin-care and hair-care essentials packaged in 100 percent recycled ocean-bound plastic. If you aren’t familiar with the term, ocean-bound plastic refers to post-consumer plastic waste at risk of entering the ocean. Unlike ocean plastic—which is already in the ocean and often degraded and contaminated—ocean-bound plastic is collected from areas within 30 miles of the coast where waste management systems are lacking.
By repurposing this specific type of plastic, Hoyt explains, the brand is actively preventing it from polluting our oceans and thus contributing to preserving marine biodiversity. This initiative serves a dual purpose: It reduces the demand for new (virgin) plastic production, reduces the carbon footprint associated with its manufacturing, and supports local communities by providing economic opportunities through plastic waste collection.
“I’m so proud of the work we’ve done to create this collection in the most sustainable way we can. We began researching different types of more sustainable packaging years ago. We looked at everything from glass, aluminum, and other materials and concluded that ocean bound plastic provided the best solution. Because of this tie to the ocean, initially I was developing the formulas to be ocean-ingredient based. However, in really thinking about our goal to be more environmentally friendly, I decided that the collection should celebrate the different landscapes of the earth that are the most precious and at risk right now. That led to the collection featuring ingredients from the mountains, forest, desert and coastal regions.”
And the collection really is that all-encompassing. Besides the mindful outsides, the beautiful spa-like formulas are crafted with effective botanicals and invigorating scents. There’s a shampoo, conditioner, body wash and moisturizer, all of which help support self-care with a very solid side of sustainability.
